Tips and Tricks for Cartography (To have something like Google Maps)

Alireza Kashian

Posted 25 January 2009 - 07:32 PM

Alireza Kashian

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Singapore

Hi,

I have been looking around for different topics in this forum which are focused on making map tiles for Google Maps.
I found some good answers in Cartotalk (thanks to contributors) and still have lags on some useful working tips.

In short, we can make good maps in ArcMap or even using Mapublisher withing illustrator. We can tile up the map using ArcServer or GlobalMapper.

But after working with all those solutions, I still have some doubts about quality of my methods. Please guide me for following questions:
1- What is the most important feature that Mapublisher has but ArcMap does not have? (for example Labeling in ArcMap is very slow and sometimes a label does not exactly fit where it should sit).
2- How can we tile the map if we use Mapublisher in illustrator (you know we have .ai files .which can't be loaded into GlobalMapper). Is there any script to be run in illustrator to make PNG tiles (256x256)?
3- Is there any good resource on the web explaining how Google or Microsoft are designing their Maps. For example, what are zooming scales in each zoom level, what color codes they use for roads,parks, homes? how do they choose Road thickness based on Zoom level and priority of roads like Highways or ordinary avenues? How do they propagate the labels that don't cross each other and the map is nicely clear?

My 3rd question is very critical to us and we are still wondering around for solutions.

Charles Syrett

Posted 26 January 2009 - 10:29 AM

Charles Syrett

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Canada

<clip>3- Is there any good resource on the web explaining how Google or Microsoft are designing their Maps. For example, what are zooming scales in each zoom level, what color codes they use for roads,parks, homes? how do they choose Road thickness based on Zoom level and priority of roads like Highways or ordinary avenues? How do they propagate the labels that don't cross each other and the map is nicely clear?

My 3rd question is very critical to us and we are still wondering around for solutions.

ThanksAlireza Kashian

It's not clear to me why you're asking that question about design and colours. Do you want to make your maps look exactly like theirs? If so, why?

Colours and line thicknesses are your free choice, based on your own cartographic design skills (and, thanks to modern technology, trial and error).

As for the scales at the zoom levels, within any given geographic area that you're working with, a little basic common-sense math will give you the answers. (No programming skills needed!) Be careful, though -- your calculations will be different at different latitudes, because of the Mercator projection used for these map engines.

Posted 26 January 2009 - 02:18 PM

For starters MaPublisher has flash mapping capabilities & where Google Maps has Flash mapping I don't see why that will not be included in the future.

3- Is there any good resource on the web explaining how Google or Microsoft are designing their Maps.

Google has a contract with Navteq, they don't know how to design a real map. But they are programmers, & the comapny doesn't cater all that much to designers, they target programmers, so you better hit the books if you want to produce google maps.

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Hans van der Maarel

Posted 27 January 2009 - 02:19 AM

Hans van der Maarel

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2- How can we tile the map if we use Mapublisher in illustrator (you know we have .ai files .which can't be loaded into GlobalMapper). Is there any script to be run in illustrator to make PNG tiles (256x256)?

Export to a Tiff, georeference it and then tile that in Global Mapper.

stroeh

Posted 27 January 2009 - 02:59 AM

stroeh

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Google has a contract with Navteq, they don't know how to design a real map. But they are programmers, & the comapny doesn't cater all that much to designers, they target programmers, so you better hit the books if you want to produce google maps.

Google has a contract with Navteq TeleAtlas,Microsoft is working together with Navteq, as far as i know.

Michael Schmeling

Posted 27 January 2009 - 07:27 AM

Michael Schmeling

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2- How can we tile the map if we use Mapublisher in illustrator (you know we have .ai files .which can't be loaded into GlobalMapper). Is there any script to be run in illustrator to make PNG tiles (256x256)?

Export to a Tiff, georeference it and then tile that in Global Mapper.

Tiles can also created with GDAL. From the desription of gdal2tiles.py:

This utility generates a directory with small tiles and metadata, following OSGeo Tile Map Service Specification. Simple web pages with viewers based on Google Maps and OpenLayers are generated as well - so anybody can comfortably explore your maps on-line and you do not need to install or configure any special software (like mapserver) and the map displays very fast in the webbrowser. You only need to upload generated directory into a web server.